Circle (2015 film)
| producer = | writer = | starring = | music = Justin Marshall Elias | cinematography = Zoran Popovic | editing = Tom Campbell | studio = | distributor = FilmBuff | released = | runtime = 87 minutes | country = United States | language = English | budget = | gross = }} Circle is a 2015 American psychological thriller film written and directed by Aaron Hann and Mario Miscione. The ensemble cast includes Carter Jenkins, Lawrence Kao, Allegra Masters, Michael Nardelli, Julie Benz, Mercy Malick, Lisa Pelikan, and Cesar Garcia. It was inspired by the 1957 drama 12 Angry Men and was shot in 2014. It premiered at the Seattle International Film Festival on May 28, 2015, before being released to video-on-demand on October 16, 2015. In the film, fifty people wake up in a darkened room, only to find that one of them is killed every two minutes or when they attempt to leave. When they realize that they can control which person is selected to die, blocs emerge based on personal values. Plot Fifty people awaken in a darkened room, arranged in two concentric circles around a black dome. Noises sound when they attempt to move or touch the others. When someone ignores the warning and leaves formation, a beam from the dome kills them, and the dead are eventually removed. As the others panic, a man attempts to calm them, but the device kills him mid-sentence. Thereafter, every two minutes, another person is killed. After several people die, they realize the technology allows them to use hand gestures to vote for who dies, while arrows on the floor show each person their own vote but not others'. They attempt to all boycott the vote, but someone is still randomly selected to die. Following a college guy's suggestion, the group buys time to think by deciding in advance to eliminate the elderly for the next selections. The captives discuss where they are, how they got there, who has abducted them, and why. A young man, Eric, remembers attempting to flee Los Angeles, and others concur. Eric says that he was pulled into the air, later waking in a red room with other humans. The old man next in line agrees, saying he saw and heard aliens. The disbelieving group eliminates him instead of listening. The college guy suffers the next elimination after he aggressively targets a 52-year-old cancer survivor over the objections of people who do not consider her elderly. Several people say they recognize the others: a man identifies the woman next to him as his wife, another man identifies the doctor who was having an affair with him, and a tattooed man is eliminated after he admits to a cop's accusation domestic abuse. After several minorities are quickly eliminated, an African-American man claims the process has become racist. Several others dispute this, but when the cop goes on a racist rant, he is selected next. The captives experiment with voting, find they cannot vote for themselves, and attempt to give one vote to every person in the circle. One man gives a second vote for a pregnant woman, so Eric votes for him; this causes a tie and the man is killed in a run-off vote. The group realizes that one of the final two people left must not vote (and be killed) to render a winner. After several take their own lives by leaving formation to buy the others time, an atheist antagonizes the theists who praised the volunteers' faith. The atheist is briefly saved, but when he mocks the girl beside him for having had her boss pay for her breast enhancements, he is killed. A lesbian becomes a target, but the lawyer who argued strongest for her selection is killed instead. After several eliminations, two main blocs emerge. One bloc (led by Eric, a soldier, and a one-armed man) believes that everyone should sacrifice themselves to save the pregnant woman and a girl for last, and the other bloc (led by a bearded man and a rich man) wants to eliminate them immediately as a threat to their survival, as they believe everyone is equal, and no special privileges should be afforded to anyone. A husband is forced to vote with Eric’s bloc when they threaten to eliminate his wife, but, under interrogation, the couple admit they concocted the relationship to curry favor, resulting in the husband's elimination. Eric's faction incurs heavy losses but eliminates the other faction, leaving Eric, the pregnant woman, the girl, and a silent man who has never voted. Eric theorizes that aliens have used the process to learn about humanity's values. After the silent man is eliminated, Eric and the girl agree to simultaneously sacrifice themselves. As the girl commits suicide, Eric instead casts a last-second vote to kill the pregnant woman, then the pregnant woman's unborn child. Eric wakes in Los Angeles where he joins a group of people, almost half of whom are children or pregnant women, watching a fleet of alien crafts. Cast * Michael Nardelli as Eric * Allegra Masters as Pregnant woman * Molly Jackson as Little girl (Katie) * Jordi Vilasuso as Soldier * Julie Benz as Wife * Kaiwi Lyman-Mersereau as Bearded man * Lisa Pelikan as Cancer survivor * Lawrence Kao as Asian kid * Zachary James Rukavina as One-armed man * Daniel Lench as Rich man * Matt Corboy as Husband (Craig) * Rene Heger as Atheist * Coley Speaks as African American man * Sara Sanderson as Pretty girl (Christina) * Michael McLafferty as Lawyer * Mercy Malick as Lesbian * Michael DiBacco as Cop * Muneer Katchi as Silent man * Ashley Key as Young girl * Cameron Cruz as Guy * Carter Jenkins as College guy * Daniel Yelsky as Shaun * Rivka Rivera as Translator * Howard S. Miller as Howard * Cesar Garcia as Tattooed man * David Reivers as Bruce * David Saucedo as Hispanic man * Jamie Lee Redmon as Teenage girl * Aimee McKay as Beth * Gloria Sandoval as Foreign woman * Jacquelyn Houston as Doctor (Susan) * Marc Cedric Smith as Pilot * Kurt Long as Deacon * Bill Lewis as Oldest man * Han Nah Kim as Asian girl * John Edward Lee as Counting man * Fay DeWitt as Old woman * Emilio Rossal as Mother killing man * Kevin Sheridan as First man * Autumn Federici as Woman #3 * Shane Spalione as Second man * Jay Hawkins as Panicking man External links * Circle on IMDb Category:2015 films Category:2015 horror films Category:2010s psychological horror films Category:2010s psychological thriller films Category:2010s science fiction horror films Category:American films Category:American psychological horror films Category:American psychological thriller films Category:American science fiction horror films Category:English-language films Category:Alien abduction films Category:Directorial debut films Category:Films about death games Category:Films about discrimination